paint removal

[Hotboat]

I tried to remove some lettering on the side of my boat today with easy off oven cleaner (suggestion of a friend) and it removed most of the "one shot" paint but left the name legible and discolored the gel coat from white to off-white. Should I try it again? Use paint remover? Try sanding and bufffing? Any suggestions?

[HOWARD O]

I tried to remove some lettering on the side of my boat today with easy off oven cleaner (suggestion of a friend) and it removed most of the "one shot" paint but left the name legible and discolored the gel coat from white to off-white. Should I try it again? Use paint remover? Try sanding and bufffing? Any suggestions?

I would bet what you are seeing is the color of the original gel and the rest of the boat is discolored. If that's the case, you can sand and buff the rest of the boat to match where the old lettering was! I went through this with very large lettering on the side of a skiff. In the end, the only thing that made them match was time in the sun.

[CHACHI]

Hotboat, I used Easy-Off many years ago to remove the name of of my Minx.
The name of the boat "seemed to still be there" even though the paint was removed.

I blocked sanded with 1200 wet paper and then buffed.

If the planets were in the right alignment, you could still see the name very faintly in the gel.

I can't comment on the color change as my hull was honey brown.


Ken